May 10, 2013 10:28am EDTMay 10, 2013 10:00am EDTThe March 2003 race at Darlington is widely regarded as the greatest finish in NASCAR history. Kurt Busch and Ricky Craven will certainly never forget it — nor their handshake in victory lane. They relive the magical moment.

DARLINGTON, S.C. — When Kurt Busch went to victory lane at Darlington Raceway after losing one of the closest races in NASCAR history, Ricky Craven wasn’t sure what was coming.

Busch and Craven had just battled to the finish, banging doors and scraping sheet metal for the final several hundred feet. At one point, their cars appeared hooked together as they each had an unwavering will to win at one of NASCAR’s most historic tracks.

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Craven emerged victorious by 0.002 seconds — the closest finish since NASCAR has been using electronic timing and scoring. Busch had held the lead entering the final lap but would up second.

“I didn't know how I was going to be greeted,” Craven said. “But Kurt grabbed a hold of my hand, we shook hands, and I could give you all sorts of analogies, but honestly, as far as racing goes, it was as close to — this is really going to seem out there — but it was as close to a schoolyard basketball game or a schoolyard kickball game when you're a kid.

“It's as close as it gets. … When recess is over, when the game is over and you've got to head back into class, you usually go in arm in arm or laughing, prodding one another, and that's really what it was that day. The race has definitely brought Kurt and I together. He's been very gracious. But it's real.”

Saturday’s Bojangles Southern 500 at Darlington marks the 10th anniversary of one of the most memorable finishes in NASCAR history. Busch, the 2004 Cup champion, will make his 17th start at Darlington Saturday night, but has never won there since coming so close in that March 2003 race.

The win was the second of Craven’s two career victories — he won at Martinsville in 2001 — and the second for now-defunct PPI Motorsports.

“The race has become much bigger to me than just the trophy,” said Craven, who is now an analyst for ESPN. “It wasn't about being a fan of mine, it wasn't necessarily about being a fan of Kurt, it was really about being a fan of racing.

“Because since I've retired, it seems as though it's all that anybody wants to talk about when I cross paths with them.”

One of the reasons it was a great finish was Craven’s comeback. Busch had led the previous 23 laps. With his power steering gone, he scrubbed the wall with a few laps to go trying to hold on.

“The way that Ricky and I raced, it's amazing we didn't wreck each other, and just hand the win over to a third-place running guy,” Busch said. “That day it was Dave Blaney.

“To take the gloves off, I knew Ricky was going to catch me. I just knew it. I had power steering issues.”

So Busch did the only thing he could — he tried to make his car as wide as possible.

“With the inevitable coming to me of Ricky, having so much more speed than me at the end, it's as if I went into that defensive short-track mode, and doing that on a three-eighths-mile (track) Saturday night in a Late Model is just fine, but doing it at a 1.3-mile superspeedway with a Cup car, maybe it's not so acceptable,” Busch said.

“But, then again, there's somebody that's going to get a trophy and points and a check.”

That guy was Craven. But what made it such a great finish was because Busch finished second.

“When a driver who's running second spins the driver in front of him, somebody got cheated,” Craven said. “The people in the stands might not have gotten cheated, but somebody in the equation got cheated.

“The great thing about Darlington (that day), and it's very apparent 10 years later, is that nobody got cheated. Nobody.”

So while fans often want to see crashes, they saw a great finish without a crash.

“I agree with Kurt that for whatever reason, the ‘Lady in Black’ allowed us to race the way we did the last two laps, because typically you couldn't do that on new tires,” Craven said. “We did it on worn-out tires. I mean, we were 50 laps into a run. The tires were gone.

“And what both of us should be most proud of is that we took each other right to the edge but we didn't take each other out, and that really stands pretty tall with me.”

It stands tall with Busch as well. That’s why he went over to congratulate Craven after the race.

He knew it was a great race and on that day, he just got beat.

“That's what the fans want to see — at the end of the day, two guys taking the gloves off, going after it and producing such a solid finish,” Busch said.